


i'll believe in anything

by silentfaith



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Demons, F/F, F/M, Getting Together, Ghosts, M/M, Paranormal Investigators, eventually, skimmons is a power couple
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 08:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14997125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentfaith/pseuds/silentfaith
Summary: It was all Skye's idea. 'Oh Fitz, let's start a paranormal investigation team!' He probably should have taken her more seriously, and probably shouldn't have told her about seeing his dead granddad, but hey. There are worse ways to spend a night than in haunted houses, yeah?No, probably not.Skye ropes Lance, Fitz, and Ward into investigating the paranormal. With support from Jemma and Skye's adoptive parents, May and Phil, they might just be able to make a name for themselves. If they can deal with the fact they're apparently plagued by a demonic presence.





	i'll believe in anything

The Georgetown Theater was the latest of Skye’s fixations, and Fitz knew without a doubt the moment Skye got of the phone with the owner, it was time for another road trip. The four of them packed their ghost hunting gear and piled into Skye’s new Range Rover. (The Van had mysteriously and suddenly died. Well, not that mysteriously. As soon as Skye was sure her shitty baby was gone forever had begun to lament about all the good times they had together, Fitz had looked at May with a raised eyebrow. May winked back.)  
  
Fitz took the time the nine hour drive gave him to delve deeper into his research on the building’s history, even as Ward propped his feet up on the dash and bickered with Skye. It was the oldest and most historic site in it’s tiny little Georgetown, and pretty much the only thing bringing in anyone from outside. It used to be used for live theater, but now it was used more for the oddly important town hall meeting and a traveling production here and there, as well as by the local high school. There were at least twenty cases of supposed hauntings, from employees to patrons to drama teachers. Fitz flipped through his multitudes of open tabs, scanning the sparse articles.  
  
Casey Jones, a teenage temporary usher hired to help nights during a shoddy theater troupe’s even shoddier interpretation of Hamlet, reported seeing a women in attire from the early twentieth century wandering around the lobby. The women seemed confused, but when Casey approached her, she suddenly walked down a corridor towards the restrooms, turned a corner, and disappeared. She was sure that the women wasn’t any of the cast.  
  
Hale Stevens, while working the control booth, experience a moment of extreme dread, followed by the temperature seeming to drop down to near-freezing, before the door to the booth was thrown open and slammed shut multiple times by an unseen force.  
  
An anonymous women, working the late shift to clean the auditorium, was cleaning the balcony seats and saw what appeared to be a man in the front row of the balcony. She claimed that once the called out to him, she realized he was dressed in old clothes including a top hat and, as he turned in her direction, had no face. He then tipped his hat to the women, and promptly leaned backward off the balcony into the seating below. When the women investigated, of course, there was no there.  
  
The owner even called in a medium at one point. Apparently the theater was just super haunted, and there might even be a demon running around in there. The report of the medium's visit included a couple photos. Most Fitz were able to roll his eyes at and dismiss as the human mind’s ability to see faces and silhouettes out of nothing. The last photo in the album, though, was different.  
  
It was a fuzzy, dark silhouette of a man at the end of a long hallway. It was essentially featureless, aside from its eyes. They looked like an animal’s eyes, reflecting light in the dark. It was wholly unnerving, and maybe it was the late hour, the fact he had his brightness so low on his laptop so as to not strain his eyes, but the picture almost seemed to move.  
  
A loud noise next to Fitz caused him to jump, and he whipped his head in time to see Lance’s sleeping face, fully illuminated for a moment as the car passed by a streetlight. He snored again, and Fitz rolled his eyes. It was barely eight, and already the self appointed “adult” of the group was dead asleep. He couldn’t even wait until they got to the hotel!  
  
Fitz let out a long sigh as he closed his laptop, causing one Grant Ward to turn around and throw him a crooked grin, clearly still riding the high from winning his and Skye’s argument. It made Fitz’s heart flutter a bit, but he quickly stamped that down. Still, he could feel how fond his own smile must be, and given how Ward’s sharp expression grew so soft, Fitz should really be grateful for the cloak of heteronormativity making his stupid crush appear more platonic that it was. To Ward, anyway. As both men turned to look out their windows, Fitz caught Skye’s gaze in the rearview mirror, and she winked. The audacity! He rolled his eyes at her, but she had already turned her focus on the road.  
  
Just as well. While Skye was the best driver of the four of them, it really wasn’t a contest. Especially considering neither Fitz nor Lance had a driver’s license. 

  


 

They checked into their hotel, a nice chain one about twenty minutes out from Georgetown, and settled in for the night. Lance took a running leap and landed spread eagle upon one of the queen beds, snoring as soon as his head hit the pillow. Skye quickly dug through her back for her toiletries and commandeered the bathroom.  
“Unlimited hot water, motherfuckers!” she said as she kicked the door closed behind her.  
  
Fitz shook his head, giving Ward a look that said “Can you believe these two?” and dropped his bag at the foot of the unoccupied bed.  
v “Honestly,” Ward started, tossing his bag next to Fitz’s as he nudged the room door shut. “I wanted to shower tonight. Last time she was in the shower for - what? An hour?” He plopped down on the bed in front of Fitz, only somewhat more graceful than Lance, and layed down with his hands under his head. “I get that she has like, eighteen different products for her hair, but how long does it really take?”  
  
“She’s not even taking a real shower,” Fitz replied, nudging Ward over a bit and sitting in the little bit of space he gave up. Fitz started digging through his bag for his pajamas. “She just sits half under the water and puts her phone at the edge of the tub so she can scroll through Tumblr. Jemma finds her like that at home, like, all the time apparently.”  
  
Ward huffed out a laugh behind him. After a few seconds of silence, he noted, “They’re cute together, huh?”  
  
“They went as Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn for Halloween,” Fitz said, throwing a look over his shoulder, hands still moving through the mess of his duffel. “They’re bloody adorable.” Ward gave him a nod in agreement and cracked that slow, crooked grin. Fitz turned to face his bag again, feeling a heat in his face that he definitely did not want Ward to catch a glimpse of. Honestly, how pathetic was it to be this affected by a smile?  
  
Though, it was probably the prettiest smile that Fitz had ever seen, and it did belong to Ward. To say he had a bit of a crush on the man was a huge understatement. He wasn’t quite in love with him either, thank you very much Skye. That would be a little far, but yes, he found Ward very, very attractive and his laugh was like sunshine or something, and maybe Fitz did think about kissing him more than he did most people, but he had it under control. He could handle it, keep it under wraps during these overnight investigations (aside from Skye, but she only knew because Jemma knew, and she only knew because she could read Fitz like a book).  
  
Beside him, Ward chuckled at something on his phone, and Fitz had to hold in a sigh. Honestly, which was the worst tragedy: the mystery deaths at Georgetown Theater, or him falling for his straight best friend?  
  
The world may never know, he thought to himself as he moved from the front of the bed to sit back against the headboard. Ward quickly sat up as well, moving to Fitz’s side to show him another vine compilation.  
  
“This has all the best ones,” Ward said through his laughter.  
  
“You say that about all of them,” he replied, knocking his shoulder against the other man’s.  
  
Ward pushed back against him. “Yeah, yeah, but look - this one is the best.”

  


Skye came out nearly forty minutes later, wearing pajamas with her hair wrapped in a towel, only to find all her boys asleep. Lance was curled into himself on the nearest bed, snoring softly. She tugged her towel off and tossed it on the side he had vacated in his sleep. Ward and Fitz were snuggled together on the other bed, only half-sitting against the pillows. Fitz had his head on Ward’s shoulder, and Ward had an arm around Fitz’s waist.  
  
Skye threw her head back and sighed, then snapped a picture to send to Jemma. She captioned it “two dumb fucks who will never confess their feelings for each other, fall asleep in each others arms, more at eleven,” and hit send. Jemma only took a minute to answer, sending back a selfie of her facepalming. She screenshotted it and moved to wake up Ward. He woke with a start, scanning the room before blinking up at her.  
  
“Hey there, cowboy,” she whispered. “Bathroom’s free.” He grunted out a thanks and turned towards Fitz, seeming surprised when he saw how close they had gotten. Skye moved back to her bed as he carefully extracted his arm and stood with only minimal stirring from the other man.  
  
Skye pulled some blankets out from under Lance before wrapping them around herself and snuggling into him. Lance, for his part, wrapped an arm around her in his sleep. After achieving maximum coziness, Skye took to watching Ward move silently around the room. It was almost unnatural how quiet he could be if he wanted to. That is, until he look wistfully back and Fitz and tripped over Lance’s bag.  
  
He caught himself quickly, yes, but not before making a total fool at himself. Skye held in her laughter only to keep from waking Lance, but Ward shot her a glare anyway.  
  
“Shut,” Ward whispered back, “your fucking face.”  
  
“Make,” she replied, “a fucking move.”  
  
“I told you before.” He walked past her to the bathroom. “He doesn’t like me like that.”  
  
“Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.”  
  
He shut the door on her. What a little twerp. Holding in a groan, Skye grabbed her phone to text Jemma how much she missed her and her sensibility. When she had her girlfriend to drape herself over, and a drink in hand, she would sometimes wax poetic about her friendship with Ward.  
  
“It’s the true reason for our height difference,” she would say, “Ward and I could never see eye to eye, not even literally.” Then Jemma would toss a pillow at her and call her overdramatic. Truthfully, she just wanted Ward to be happy, even if she had to kick his ass to get him that way.


End file.
